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Shia LaBeouf gets probation after pleading guilty to punching bargoers during Mardi Gras

PEOPLE
Shia LaBeouf poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film “The Phoenician Scheme” at the 78th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, May 18, 2025. Invision via AP

NEW ORLEANS — Actor Shia LaBeouf was sentenced to probation Wednesday after pleading guilty to punching three people outside a New Orleans bar during Mardi Gras.

LaBeouf must attend an alcohol treatment program under the sentence handed down by an Orleans Parish judge, according to Sarah Chervinsky, an attorney for the actor.

LaBeouf, most widely known for his starring roles in 2007’s “Transformers” and in 2008’s “Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull,” had been released on bail following his arrest near the city's historic French Quarter. Video of the Feb. 17 encounter shows a shirtless LaBeouf outside a bar shoving one person to the ground and hitting another person in the face, “causing his nose to possibly dislocate,” according to a New Orleans police report. Police said LaBeouf repeatedly used homophobic slurs, including while he was arrested.

LaBeouf pleaded guilty to three counts of simple battery. Orleans Parish Judge Juana Marine-Lombard handed the actor a six month suspended sentence and two years of probation. LaBeouf also must stay away from the victims and the bar.

Chervinsky said LaBeouf wanted “to take accountability for his part in what happened” and called it a “minor Mardi Gras bar tussle.” Chervinsky said there was “no evidence it was about bias or prejudice.”

Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams said in a statement that his office consulted with the victims to ensure their support before offering LaBeouf the plea deal.

Jeffrey Damnit, a local entertainer whom police identified as Jeffrey Klein, said he was one of the people attacked by LaBeouf. He has said LaBeouf had pushed him from behind at the bar earlier in the night, shouting homophobic slurs and threatening his life.

Damnit’s attorney said his client hopes LaBeouf's behavior improves after the actor undergoes substance abuse treatment.

“In New Orleans we are all equal, we should all feel safe, and we don’t treat people different based upon relative fame,” attorney Michael Kennedy said.

After LaBeouf was charged in February, a judge ordered him to return to drug and alcohol rehabilitation.

Days later, LaBeouf denied having a “drinking problem” in an interview with journalist and YouTuber Andrew Callaghan. LaBeouf said he doubted rehab would help him. He told Callaghan that the issues leading led to his aggressive behavior during Mardi Gras were more rooted in “anger and ego” than alcohol.

LaBeouf also said that “big gay people are scary to me.”

“When I’m standing by myself and three gay dudes are next to me touching my leg, I get scared,” he told Callaghan. “I’m sorry. If that’s homophobic, then I’m that.”

LaBeouf, who converted to Catholicism a few years ago, has had several run-ins with the law during his career, including a 2017 New York City arrest on suspicion of assault that happened during a livestream.

While on location in Georgia filming “The Peanut Butter Falcon” later that year, he was arrested for public drunkenness and accused of disorderly conduct and obstruction and sentenced to probation.

In 2020, he was charged with misdemeanor battery and petty theft in Los Angeles.

That year, the English singer and actor FKA Twigs, whose legal name is Tahliah Barnett, also filed a lawsuit alleging LaBeouf was physically and emotionally abusive to her during their relationship, which they settled in July.

The actor first gained acclaim as a child for his role on the Disney Channel series “Even Stevens.”

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Jennifer Garner arrives at the 83rd Golden Globes on Jan. 11 at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. Invision via AP
Jennifer Garner had to put career on hold amid Ben Affleck ‘upheaval’

After Jennifer Garner initially split from Ben Affleck in 2015, she said she had no choice but to focus on staying home and rearing their three children, whose ages ranged from 2 to 9 years old at the time.

Meanwhile, Affleck was able to keep working in his profession, starring in major films like “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and “The Accountant,” as the Daily Mail reported.

But as Garner said in a new interview with InStyle, her children, Violet, 20, Finn, 17, and Samuel, 13, are older. So that means she has time to “indulge” in acting, a pursuit that makes her very happy.

“When my kids were little, I worked so little, and then we had such an upheaval in our family, that I really hardly worked for a long time,” said Garner, who first became famous starring in the hit TV spy drama, “Alias.”

Now that Garner has time to do more film and streaming projects, she said, “I’m really grateful to have this part of my life back.”

“(It’s a gift) to have this year and a half where I just indulged (in acting), because this job is very selfish,” she told InStyle. For the interview, she was promoting her upcoming project, “The Five Star Weekend,” an eight-episode miniseries for Peacock.

“It’s all about your schedule,” Garner said, explaining how acting can be “selfish.” She said, “It’s not about what the kids have going on at school. It’s not about pickups and drop-offs and making it home for dinner.”

Garner also said she wants to work as much as she can right now. “I’m 54. I’m not going to be able to do it forever,” she said.

After starring in “Alias,” Garner transitioned into movies and seemed on track to become an A-list film star with roles in the beloved romantic comedy, “13 Going on 30,” and with supporting or ensemble roles in “Juno” and “Valentine’s Day.”

Garner married Affleck in 2005 after befriending him on the sets of “Pearl Harbor” and “Daredevil.” They soon started a family, while Affleck pursued his dream of directing movies, receiving acclaim for his work on “Gone Baby Gone,” “The Town,” and “Argo,” with “Argo” winning the 2012 Academy Award for best picture.

The couple first separated in 2015, and it was subsequently known that Garner supported Affleck with his struggles with alcoholism during and after the marriage.

After the couple’s separation, they let it be known that they were partners in co-parenting, and Affleck continued to live in a guesthouse at the family home until 2017. However, it also was reported that Affleck had been unfaithful during the marriage, through Affleck denied these reports, according to Entertainment Tonight.

Affleck also allegedly had a relationship with their children’s nanny, Christine Ouzounian. In a 2016 interview with Vanity Fair, Garner addressed the nanny reports, saying, “Let me just tell you something. We had been separated for months before I ever heard about the nanny. She had nothing to with our decision to divorce. She was not a part of the equation.”

Garner and Affleck finalized their divorce in 2018, after Garner helped Affleck return to rehab after he relapsed and began drinking again. At the time, TMZ and other outlets published photos of Garner staging an intervention at Affleck’s mansion and driving him to a facility in Los Angeles County, where he checked in for an extended stay.

In the aftermath of the divorce, Affleck dated actor Ana de Armas, whom he met on the set of “Deep Water,” from 2019 to early 2021. He then rekindled his famous, early 2000s romance with Jennifer Lopez in 2021. He and the pop star married in 2022, but separated two years later and finalized their divorce in 2025.

Garner has meanwhile been in a relationship with businessman John Miller for the past eight years, the Daily Mail reported.

Even though Garner feels that her hands-on parenting responsibilities have eased up somewhat in recent years, she told InStyle that she still feels the pull of being a mother.

“I relate to that feeling of like, ‘OK, I gave everything to mothering. I’m still their mom, I’m not going anywhere, I’m still all-in,'” she said. She also stressed that women need to be kind to themselves as they balance work and family.

“You have to raise yourself at the same time,” Garner said. “And just be so radically kind to yourself about how imperfect it is.”

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Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Feb. 9, 2020. Invision via AP
Dutch court allows rapper Ye concerts in the Netherlands

AMSTERDAM — A judge in Amsterdam on Wednesday rejected an appeal by a Jewish organization to block two performances by the rapper Ye, formerly Kanye West, ruling that the concerts are not a threat to public order.

Ye has drawn widespread controversy in recent years for a series of antisemitic remarks, leaving Dutch authorities under mounting pressure to cancel the gigs on June 6 and 8.

The Central Jewish Council filed the emergency lawsuit on Tuesday, arguing that Ye should be banned from the country for voicing admiration for Adolf Hitler and selling T-shirts featuring swastikas.

According to the Amsterdam District Court, there were no grounds to bar Ye from performing. “There are no indications that West’s presence in the coming days will lead to concrete public order dangers,” the court said in a statement.

The Central Jewish Council expressed disappointment with the ruling. “The feeling we are getting is that it is OK if you are antisemitic,” Chanan Hertzberger, the organization’s chair, told the Associated Press.

Lawmakers in the Netherlands supported a motion to bar Ye from entering the country but the country’s immigration minister said there was no legal basis for such a move. Ye’s remarks were “reprehensible” but there was “no reason to bar him,” Bart van den Brink told journalists last week.

The 48-year-old was set to perform his first European dates in more than a decade. In April, he was barred from entering the U.K. over his remarks, setting off a series of cancellations. Shows in Italy and Poland have been scrapped.

More than 100,000 fans turned out in Istanbul on Saturday evening to watch Ye’s first performance in Turkey.

Concert organizers say 70,000 tickets have been sold for the two upcoming shows at the Gelredome in the eastern Dutch city of Arnhem.

Ye apologized in January through a full-page advertisement in The Wall Street Journal, stating that his bipolar disorder led him to fall into “a four-month long, manic episode of psychotic, paranoid and impulsive behavior that destroyed my life.”

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From combined wire services

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